JOIN USCorporator wants commissioner sacked over garbage menace
The Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) Commissioner Rajneesh Goel faced the wrath of the opposition members at the BBMP Council’s monthly meeting on Friday for his alleged failure to get the garbage cleared from the City.
Soon after the Council meeting began, the JD(S) corporator Padmanabha Reddy fumed at the Commissioner alleging that he has insulted the Council by blaming the corporators for the uncleared garbage.
“It was officials who failed. But, the corporators got a rap from the High Court, which observed that the government should consider superseding the BBMP for its failure to clear garbage,” said Reddy.
He asked the Commissioner to name any corporator who is a garbage contractor. Expressing solidarity with Reddy, the Nandini Layout corporator M Nagaraj sought the removal of Goel from the post stating that he has insulted corporators while it was he who had failed to discharge his duties.
As he staged a dharna inside the well of the Council hall, fellow Congress corporators joined him to protest the alleged failure of the Palike administration to solve the garbage problem.
They returned to their seats on Mayor D Venkatesh Murthy’s request.
The ruling party leader N Nagaraju dubbed the statement of the Karnataka High Court that the Palike should be superseded as “demoralising.”
“We gave all powers to Commissioner and lent complete support to deal with the garbage problem. But, the remarks of the court that the BBMP should be superseded are discouraging.”
The commissioner said that the garbage problem existed even before he was posted to the Palike and a public interest litigation petition on the issue had been filed in the Karnataka High Court.
He said although he sympathised with the corporators for being insulted, it is not possible to put an end to criticisms.
Mobile phone scam?
Hanumanthanagar corporator K Chandrashekhar alleged that 32 proposals related to garbage clearance were passed in the last three years but were never sent to the State government for approval.
He said he would implead before the Karnataka High Court about the failure of the BBMP to heed to the 32 proposals.
He also raised the issue of corruption in the mobile phone procurement for garbage clearance. “How mobile phones of a particular brand worth Rs 72 lakh were purchased even without floating tenders? Who gave permission for it?”
He also took the Palike administration to task for giving Janaagraha, an NGO, a “backdoor entry” to interfere in the BBMP's affairs.
“Who is Kalpana Kar and what is her contribution to Bangalore? You are allowing NGOs to enter from backdoor,” Chandrashekhar alleged.
Opposition leader M K Gunashekar concurred with Chandrashekar’s views.